Badger Meter, Inc. and Itron, Inc. Sign Alliance - Distribution Agreement.

MILWAUKEE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 11, 1999--Badger Meter, Inc. (AMEX:BMI) today announced that it has entered into an Alliance and Distribution Agreement with Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) of Spokane, Washington. The ten-year agreement provides for the distribution of a broad range of Itron products by Badger Meter as well as joint product development for the water utility industry.

The contract permits sales of Itron products by Badger to all segments of the water industry, including municipal and investor-owned water utilities, private contractors that manage water utilities and the rapidly emerging submetering market for apartments and condominiums.

"In the last three years, Badger Meter and Itron have developed an excellent working relationship in metering and AMR projects, such as those in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," said Robert D. Belan, executive vice-president of Badger Meter, Inc. "In fact, in a majority of instances where water utilities have selected the Itron automatic meter reading technology, they have also selected Badger Recordall(R) meters and RTR(R) digital encoding registers. To date, more than 750,000 Badger meters are either installed or under contract for installation in conjunction with Itron AMR projects," said Belan.

Belan continued, "With more than 13,000,000 AMR end point devices installed across the electric, gas and water utility industries, there is no question that Itron is one of the leading AMR communication providers. Itron has continued investing in AMR technologies, and has the reputation of delivering a consistently high level of customer service in support of their AMR programs. As part of our defined objective of providing connectivity to leading AMR technologies on behalf of our customers, a stronger relationship with Itron is very appropriate."

"We are very excited about this agreement with Badger Meter because it will help us build on the successes we've already achieved by working together," said Michael J. O'Callaghan, vice president for corporate relations at Itron. "Badger combines the strengths of product innovation and a strong 'customer first' orientation. With the signing of our Alliance Distribution Agreement, we are confident that Badger will enhance its strong market position in the water industry through the sale of Itron products," said O'Callaghan.

Itron is a leading provider to the utility industry of data acquisition and wireless communications solutions for collecting, communicating and analyzing electric, gas and water usage. Itron serves more than 1,500 utility customers in more than 45 countries. The company is headquartered in Spokane, Washington, and has engineering, design, and manufacturing facilities in several U.S. locations and subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France and Australia. Itron employs approximately 1,200 people worldwide.

Badger Meter is a leading marketer and manufacturer of flow measurement and control technology, developed both internally and with other technology companies, as well as the leader in providing digital connectivity to leading AMR technologies. Its products are used to measure and control the flow of liquids and gases in a variety of applications.

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